Earnest

' A thing delivered to a vendor in assurance of a serious purpose to complete the contract of sale. Giving earnest is one of the alternatives prescribed by the original Statute of Frauds (g. v.) for the validity of a contract for a sale of personalty of the value of £10 or more.* If the purchaser accepts and pays for the goods the earnest- money counts as part of the price; if not, the amount is forfeited. The idea was taken from the civil law. A deposit with a third person, to be forfeited if the buyer does not complete Mis purchase, is not earnest.* Whatever may have been thought by old writers respecting the effect, in the transmission of property, of giving and receiving earnest money, it is now considered of no importance, or of the smallest importance." 'Adams Express Co. v. Lexington, 83 Ky. 660 (1886). a Claflin v. Tilton, 141 Mass. 343 (1886). ' Mid. Bngr ernes, a pledge.

4 See 2 Bl. Com. 448; 2 Kent, 389. 'Howe V. Hayward, 108 Mass. 55 (1871), cases: Mass. (Jen. Stat. c. 105, § 5; Benj. Sales, 2 ed., 260.